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The development of problem-solving abilities in a population of candidate detection dogs (Canis familiaris)

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Both ontogenetic and phylogenetic factors have shaped dogs’ cognitive capabilities, resulting in a heightened social sensitivity at the apparent cost of non-social problem-solving abilities. Research has suggested that training history and life experience can influence problem-solving abilities in dogs. However, the ontogenetic development of problem-solving abilities in dogs has not been explored. We tested a population of candidate detection dogs of various ages across the first year of development on four well-established problem-solving tasks targeting different cognitive domains (i.e., cylinder, A-not-B barrier, delayed search, and spatial transposition tasks). We examined developmental effects by comparing cognitive task performance across three age groups. Age-related improvements for all four cognitive measures indicate developmental increases in processes related to inhibitory control, attention, and spatial cognition between 3 and 12 months of age. Additionally, we found some relationships between cognitive measures and detection dog performance measures, though effects were not as robust. We discuss the results in the context of canine cognitive development and corresponding effects of phylogeny and ontogeny, as well as potential applications to working dog training and selection.
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Animal Cognition (2020) 23:755–768
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01387-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
The development ofproblem‑solving abilities inapopulation
ofcandidate detection dogs (Canis familiaris)
LuciaLazarowski1· SarahKrichbaum2· L.PaulWaggoner1· JereyS.Katz2
Received: 6 January 2020 / Revised: 24 March 2020 / Accepted: 17 April 2020 / Published online: 24 April 2020
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Both ontogenetic and phylogenetic factors have shaped dogs’ cognitive capabilities, resulting in a heightened social sensitivity
at the apparent cost of non-social problem-solving abilities. Research has suggested that training history and life experience
can influence problem-solving abilities in dogs. However, the ontogenetic development of problem-solving abilities in dogs
has been less explored. We tested a population of candidate detection dogs of various ages across the first year of development
on four well-established problem-solving tasks targeting different cognitive domains (i.e., cylinder, A-not-B barrier, delayed
search, and spatial transposition tasks). We examined developmental effects by comparing cognitive task performance across
three age groups. Age-related improvements for all four cognitive measures indicate developmental increases in processes
related to inhibitory control, attention, and spatial cognition between 3 and 12months of age. Additionally, we found some
relationships between cognitive measures and detection dog performance measures, though effects were not as robust. We
discuss the results in the context of canine cognitive development and corresponding effects of phylogeny and ontogeny, as
well as potential applications to working dog training and selection.
Keywords Canine cognition· Problem solving· Detection dogs
Introduction
Dogs exhibit remarkable socio-cognitive abilities similar
to those appearing early in human development (MacLean
etal. 2017), but appear to be comparatively deficient or at
least non-exceptional in cognitive skills outside of the social
domain (Lea and Osthaus 2018). While a combination of
genetic and behavioral selection favoring adaptation to life
with humans likely led to enhanced socio-cognitive skills in
dogs, physical problem-solving abilities may be stunted due
to a buffering effect of human provision (Bräuer etal. 2006;
Lampe etal. 2017).
Evidence suggests that reduced physical problem-solving
abilities may be an artifact of domestication, due to relaxed
ecological pressures stemming from an increasing reliance
on humans (Bräuer etal. 2006). Comparative differences
between wolves and dogs have been reported in tasks of
causal inference (Lampe etal. 2017), independent problem-
solving (Brubaker etal. 2017; Lazzaroni etal. 2019; Mar-
shall-Pescini etal. 2017a, b; Udell 2015), and self-regulation
(Marshall-Pescini etal. 2015). Species differences in these
abilities have been attributed to socio-behavioral ecologies
(Maclean etal. 2014; Marshall-Pescini etal. 2015), selection
for tamer temperaments during domestication (Marshall-
Pescini etal. 2015), post-domestication artificial selection
for specific temperament profiles (Bray etal. 2015; MacLean
etal. 2017), motivational variables (Brucks etal. 2019; Laz-
zaroni etal. 2019; Marshall-Pescini etal. 2017a, b), and
biases towards humans that interfere with performance
(Erdohegyi etal. 2007; Gagnon and Doré 1994; Miller etal.
2009; Topál etal. 2009). Other studies have reported that
dogs’ and wolves’ understanding of object permanence is
equally limited compared to great apes, and point to ecologi-
cal factors common to the canid evolutionary history rather
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s1007 1-020-01387 -y) contains
supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Lucia Lazarowski
lucia.lazarowski@auburn.edu
1 Canine Performance Sciences, College ofVeterinary
Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
2 Department ofPsychological Sciences, Auburn University,
Auburn, AL, USA
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Remarkably, cooperative dog breeds also showed more LBR in the study of Lugosi et al. [39], coinciding with their larger difficulties in mastering the detour task. On the other hand, Lazarowski et al. [40] and Hirschi et al. [20] compared cooperative and independent dog breeds in terms of LBR during an impossible task, and they did not find differences between the groups. However, Hirschi and colleagues only included terriers and herding dogs in their study, and thus the representativeness of the two working dog types can be considered as somewhat skewed. ...
... However, Hirschi and colleagues only included terriers and herding dogs in their study, and thus the representativeness of the two working dog types can be considered as somewhat skewed. Lazarowski and colleagues [40] tested a large number of Labrador Retrievers along with a few specimens of other cooperative breeds, while only a few independent breeds were included (meanwhile, the authors invited mixed-breed dogs as well as hard-to-classify breeds to their sample). We suggest, therefore, that for investigating the effect of functional working breed selection on the dependency of dogs on human assistance, a much clearer and more representative choice of breeds would be needed. ...
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